At first I was wondering what my tour would be like – since my position was deleted about a week after I arrived. Luckily able to convince people that if you’re building an Army – then there may just possibly be a role for organizational psychology! By now we have re-established the position and I lead several teams working on supporting the Afghan National Army in developing merit based assessment, force management, career path design, occupational review and basically every element of Strategic HR. So far I have programmed almost 1 Billion U.S. dollars in programs and capabilities, which is a great feeling. In my spare time I also get to support gender integration and recruiting so attend women’s Shura’s, see Afghan women special forces, and other odds and ends.

Kabul is beautiful and we have many opportunities to lead movements through the city and practice avoiding accidents and people who apparently cycle with their eyes closed. The working hours are a bit ridiculous but who sleeps anyways?

Food of course is wonderful, or will be once they get ice cream again.

All in all it’s been a great experience and I encourage anyone to deploy. There is always room for people to create their own opportunities, and the technical skills and creative energy we bring as PSO’s has been eagerly embraced by NTM-A and our Afghan colleagues.

We are all healthy over here and as long as we don’t run out of Keurig coffee will be quite comfortable for the rest of our tour. I look forward to seeing you all at the conference in early 2013!

Capt Edith Knight and Maj Dan Tanguay are working for the Afghan National Police (ANP)

The Afghan National Police is a huge organization of about 157 000 policemen/women across the country. Over the last year, in conjunction with NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan (NTM-A), the Ministry of Interior spent a lot of energy to recruit in order to reach this number and ensure a minimum of security to the population. Now that they have reached the target, it’s time to move on to the next phase, which is professionalizing the police force. Within Assistant Command General – Police Transition Group (ACG-PTG), our organization, the mission is to work closely with Training General Command (TGC) and the Operational Pillars (OP) to develop and transition an enduring Training Management System (TMS).

The first step in TMS is training needs analysis and this is where PSOs come into play: determining which tasks, knowledge and skills are critical for the OP and providing relevant findings to the curriculum developers (second step in TMS) to build the right training program that meets the Afghan’s needs. In fact, we are performing job analysis on behalf of TGC; we develop a crucial aspect of the TMS. Our second responsibility is transitioning this important process to the Afghans so they will be capable to do it themselves once we leave Afghanistan. On a regular basis, we meet with Afghan counterparts to train and educate them on what we do and how we do it.

Our biggest project at the moment is the Afghan Blue Border Police. This OP does not have any basic occupational training, other than what is provided sporadically by the International Community. We use multiple strategies to apply best practices in I/O psychology to provide relevant, realistic and applicable findings into the TMS, which will then be transposed into performance objectives. Doing applied research, meeting with Afghan leaders, and collecting data from subject matter experts is a challenging and demanding task. At the end of the day, we do our best to build the best foundation that supports the actions and decisions made by the Afghans, to solve Afghan problems, with Afghan solutions.

“When I first got here last 21 April, I thought I would work on a common research project, with an Afghan accent. What a mistake! I’m experiencing one of the biggest challenges of my career. Not only do I have to conduct applied research on behalf on somebody else who doesn’t have the expertise to do it, but I also have to assist him so he can do it himself. On the top of that, practices that can be applied in a western world cannot necessarily be applied the same way, and nobody is behind you to tell you how to do it, you have to figure it out yourself! We work hard, we make mistakes, we learn day after day, we deal with ambiguity all the time; but at the end of it, what makes us carry on this job is the Afghan leader who tells you how much he appreciates your efforts. The Afghan leader knows that we’re right beside him trying to make his country a better place to live, and to make him a better leader. We’re making a real difference!”

“This is my first deployment and it has been an amazing experience. It started with pre-deployment training in Gagetown, New Brunswick in Nov 2011. The best part of the training was getting to know the people I would deploy with. Though, I enjoyed the live fire exercises in the jungle lanes and on the convoy ranges, the Gagetown convoy training did not reflect the reality of driving in the city streets of Kabul. It did not prepare us to deal with bumper to bumper traffic, mobs of people, or action drills for emergency situations in a densely populated area. Regardless, we received some very good training here in Afghanistan which was much needed and appreciated. Driving on the streets in Kabul is like driving in Montreal with all the traffic, except that added to this mix are men pulling big wooden carts, the odd herd of sheep, donkeys, women in burkas, and men on bicycles. Of course, we are always on the lookout for suspect vehicles and burkas with big shoes under them.

I’ve had several jobs since I arrived in theatre. I started in DCOM P P3 mid Feb as the Deputy Operations Officer. However, a Canadian Colonel I met in Camp Eggers found out, through our conversation, that I had experience with job analysis and he recruited me to work for his organization at Assistant Command General-Police Transition Group (ACG-PTG). After some political negotiations, I found a replacement for my job in Deputy Ops around the end of March and was permitted to work in DCOM P P5 Plans while my replacement got up to speed. While at P5, I was involved in the planning of a high level International Police Conference that included Ambassadors from numerous countries. The aim of the conference was to discuss professionalization of the Afghan National Police and to start preparatory working groups and professionalization plans. The conference was deemed a huge success, as this would be the first time in over 10 years of conflict that the Afghan leadership would meet with the International Community for discussions of this kind.

Once the conference was over and the after action report complete, I moved over to my new job. Now I am working in the Training Needs Analysis section under ACG-PTG, a subordinate organization under DCOM P. We are engaged in some very interesting and extremely important work to help the Afghan National Police professionalize their force by improving their training. It’s exciting to be conducting job analysis in Afghanistan. This experience is like no other I’ve had. We have an incredibly unique opportunity here in Camp Eggers to work alongside of many coalition partners from all over the world. I went into this tour with stereotypes about what it might be like to work with Americans and I wasn’t sure what to expect from the other nationalities. I can tell you that any stereotypes I had were misguided. No matter where people come from, as police and military personnel, we all share a common interest, and that is service to our country and pride in our nation. I’ve gained a great deal of respect for police and I have learned to appreciate the incredible range of tasks and specialized skills performed by civilian and military police forces around the world.”

It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Maj (ret’d) Bryan Goutouski. Bryan is survived by his wife Gundy and mother in Tillsonburg. In lieu of flowers, Bryan requested that donations be made to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada (the link below).

Here is a short article in Maroon and White – For Alumni & Friends of Saint Mary’s University on LCdr Rob Francis study.

Three Saint Mary’s researchers have made some discoveries that just might spell the death of Dress Down Fridays. A study conducted by Accounting professor, Dr. Karen Lightstone, Psychology professor, Dr. Lucie Kocum and Master’s student, Rob Francis reveals a significant relationship between what university professors wear and what their students think of them. It seems that clothes really do make the person—at least in terms of credibility. The researchers asked 257 participants to provide feedback on photographs of male and female university professors dressed in three levels of attire: casual, semi-formal and formal wear. For formal, think power suits instead of tuxedos and ball gowns. What they found was that female and male professors dressed formally were perceived as more credible and competent than their less formally dressed colleagues. In fact, the only downside in dressing up was that males in formal attire were seen as less likeable than females dressed in formal wear.

“We shouldn’t leap to conclusions based on this research,” cautions researcher, Rob Francis, a dual Master’s student at Saint Mary’s who is concurrently completing an MSc in Organizational Psychology and an MBA. “The study relates to students’ perceptions of professors and not to the business world in general, but the fact remains that formal dress was perceived as more credible.” As a Personnel Selection Officer and a 15-year member of the Canadian Forces, Francis is well accustomed to a certain formality of dress code, but he will remember the results of this research when he prepares to don civilian garb in the future. “I’ll carry this forward,” he says.

The research was published in the International Journal of Business and Social Science in August 2011.

The last Friday of this month marks my final day in uniform. After 21 years in the CF, 15 of which have been with the PSO branch, it’s time for me to once again head back to school. This time, I’ll be attending the West Coast College of Massage Therapy and following a two-year Registered Massage Therapy program. This new career path may seem to be in stark contrast to that of being a PSO, but there are definitely some transferrable skills: Listening and interviewing skills will help me to discover patients’ needs and requirements, and research methodology will help me to study and research new and best practices for injuries and ailments.

At my request, I won’t be having a “depart with dignity” event nor will you be seeing a message announcing my retirement from the CF. I’m just happy to enjoy a small lunch with my office teammates out here in Esquimalt.

I am so grateful to the CF, the PSO Branch, and all of you, my colleagues, for my wonderful years of service and for all of the opportunities and challenges that have helped me to develop into the person I am today. The CF is truly an amazing organization and our Branch is an extraordinary entity that constantly seeks to support and serve our members and the CF in the best way possible. I am genuinely proud to have served in this Branch, along side all of you, and I would happily continue if I weren’t feeling the very strong calling to help to heal people on an individual level through the medium of massage, and I don’t think the CF is quite ready to have massage therapists in uniform.

So, until our paths cross again, I’d just like to say a wee cheerio and leave you with one of my favourite thoughts from the Dalai Lama;

“The way you perceive a situation, even though the situation itself remains exactly the same, makes a big difference to your mental attitude.”

With sincere warmth, I wish you happy and well in all aspects of your life,

1. AFTER MORE THAN 25 YEARS OF LOYAL AND DEDICATED SERVICE TO THE CF, LIEUTENANT COLONEL MARTIN VILLENEUVE WILL RETIRE ON 06 AUGUST 2012.

2. LIEUTENANT COLONEL VILLENEUVE JOINED CF AS AN INFANTRY OFFICER FROM 1987 TO 1990. HE THEN JOINED THE PERSONNEL SELECTION BRANCH IN 1990 AND SERVED AT CFSU(O) AND VALCARTIER AS A BPSO AND FURTHER AS A PROFESSOR IN THE MPL DEPARTMENT, FOLLOWED BY A SERIES OF EMPLOYMENT AT NDHQ AS A RESEARCH COORDINATOR AND ALSO AS A SENIOR HR ADVISOR IN THE CMP ORGANISATION. HE COMPLETED A PhD IN INDUSTRIAL/ORGINISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AT UNIVERSITE DE MONTREAL IN 1998. UNPON RETIREMENT, LCOL VILLENEUVE INTENDS TO REMAIN IN THE AREA AND TEACH AT THE “UNIVERSITE DU QUEBEC EN OUTAOUAIS” AND “ECOLE NATIONALE D’ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE”.

3. A DEPART WITH DIGNITY (DWD) CEREMONY IS PLANNED ON 19 JUNE 2012 AT 1130 AT THE HMCS BYTOWN TO HONOUR LCOL VILLENEUVES CONTRIBUTION TO THE CF. THOSE PLANNING ON ATTENDING THE EVENT AND OR WISHING TO CONTRIBUTE CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES, WELL WISHES, OR HUMOROUS ANECDOTES TO BE PRESENTED AT THE EVENT ARE REQUESTED TO CONVEY THEM TO MWO HUSK AT 613-995-0324, OR PATRICIA.HUSK@FORCES.GC.CA BY 11 JUNE 2012. A SMALL CHARGE, AMOUNT TO BE DETERMINED, WILL BE COLLECTED AT THE DOOR TO DEFRAY THE COST OF THE FOOD.